Lawyers of Delhi’s 6 district courts suspend indefinite strike

The indefinite strike called by lawyers of all six district courts here was on Monday suspended upon an assurance from the Union Law Minister that the amended bill on enhancement of pecuniary jurisdiction of trial courts would be tabled soon in Parliament.

The strike, which was called by the co-ordination committee of all district court bar associations of Delhi from December 9, was suspended after a week.

Advocate RK Wadhwa, chairman of the committee, said, “We have suspended the indefinite strike on the assurance that on Wednesday, the lawyers would meet the parliamentary committee. We have met law minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Cabinet minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on the issue and they have assured that the Bill will be tabled in Parliament soon.” Advocate Sanjeev Nasiar, the convener of the committee, said the lawyers have decided to call off the strike for the time being after getting the assurance that the Bill would be tabled in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.

During the week-long strike, judicial work was affected in all the six-district courts — Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Rohini, Patiala House, Saket and Dwarka — with lawyers also staging peaceful protests outside the courts’ premises.

The committee had called for indefinite strike saying that despite assurances, the Bill recommending enhancement of pecuniary jurisdiction to Rs 2 crore for the district courts, has found no mention in the agenda for the Winter Session.

The committee also said that the full bench of Delhi High Court had recommended to the Centre to enhance the pecuniary jurisdiction from the existing Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore. “The same was done with the aim and objective of reducing pendency and work load in Delhi High Court,” it had said, adding, “yet nothing has been done in this regard for the past nearly two years.”